New Titles July - December 2017 THE WRITERS’ RETREAT INDU BALACHANDRAN ISBN: 978-1-909762-51-0 eISBN: 978-1-909762-52-7 JULY 2017 Romance Binding: B-format paperback Extent: 300 pp Price: £7.99 Rights: World, excl. Indian subcontinent Ideal for fans of Sophie Kinsella and Ayisha Malik. Together, they embark on an unforgettable adventure to finally discover their true selves and ‘A sparky, modern and glamorous romantic story!’ find love in impossibly romantic Santorini. Sareeta Domingo, author of The Nearness of You INDU BALACHANDRAN had a 30-year career in Young Amby Balan has had enough with the 9 to 5 advertising, growing from copy-trainee to Executive life at Citibank. Throwing caution to the wind, she Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson. She quits her job and becomes a Twitter-writer for Krish switched to travel writing, and has published Kumaar, the hunky new Kollywood superstar. articles in Travel Plus, The Lonely Planet, iDiva, The But despite her new exciting job (and having the Sunday Times and reviewed seventy eco-friendly opportunity to ogle her gorgeous boss all day long), destinations all over India for Travel To Care. Amby still craves finally being able to fulfil her dream of becoming a writer. Indu’s writings have featured in five anthologies of short stories. She lives in Chennai and writes humour She comes across an ad for a writers’ workshop in columns for the Sunday Hindu, and prize-winning Greece and cannot pack her bags soon enough. contest slogans for ecstatic relatives. She also On the way to Santorini, she meets Mini Cherian, a fantasizes about doing stand-up comedy at staid best-selling children’s books author who fantasises Tam Brahm weddings. about writing erotic novels, and Bobby Varma, who left behind the advertising world to become a travel writer. 4 New Autumn Fiction OF MURDER, MUSES AND ME CLAUDIA CHIBICI-REVNEANU ISBN: 978-1-909762-39-8 eISBN: 978-1-909762-40-4 SEPTEMBER 2017 Crime, literary fiction Binding: B-format paperback Extent: 280 pp Price: £8.99 Rights: World Quirky crime for fans of Colin Bateman’s With her sanity now in question, Rosalind is even ‘Mystery Man’ series more determined to uncover the truth behind Drubenheimer’s death regardless of the dramatic ‘Delightful’ Lois Lavrisa, author of Homicide by Hamlet consequences. When bestselling author Mark Drubenheimer Of Murder, Muses and Me is a sharp and witty debut is found dead in his studio, Rosalind Waterloo’s by a promising talent. world collapses. The official story is that the author committed suicide, but for his devoted fan, there is CLAUDIA CHIBICI-REVNEANU is a geographically only one explanation: Drubenheimer was murdered, confused Austrian, who currently works as a lecturer and Rosalind is the only person who can expose at the National Autonomous University of Mexico the killer. (UNAM) in León, Mexico. The young woman takes her investigation to London She has published poems, literary essays, and to the heart of the publishing industry where translations and academic articles in different she encounters an intriguing cast of characters; an international magazines such as Celeste, Schreibkraft, eccentric editor, a modest muse, a wounded widow olasciviles and The International Journal of Cultural and a mesmerising mystery man. Policy Studies. In 2000, she won the Austrian award for women writers, Minna Kautsky. New Autumn Fiction 5 RADIO SUNRISE ANIETIE ISONG ISBN: 978-1-909762-37-4 eISBN: 978-1-909762-38-1 JANUARY 2017 Political Satire, Literary Fiction Binding: B-format paperback Extent: 160 pp Price: £8.99 Rights: World ‘What is left when there is no hope and everything is Radio Sunrise paints a satirical portrait of (post) for sale? Isong weaves a profoundly personal story of post-colonial Nigeria that builds on the legacy of the contemporary Nigeria even while dealing with broader great African satirist tradition of Ngugi Wa Thiongo societal and cultural issues.’ Chika Unigwe, author of and Ayi Kwei Armah. Black Messiah and Night Dancer ANIETIE ISONG started his career as a journalist ‘Never cover an assignment without collecting a brown with Radio Nigeria, in Lagos. His short stories have envelope,’ Boniface had said. ‘It is a real life saver for all been published in journals and broadcast on the journalists in this country.’ BBC and Radio Nigeria. He won several awards, including the Commonwealth Short Story Award in Ifiok, a young journalist working for the government 2000 and was a finalist of the Remember Oluwale radio station in Lagos, aspires to always do the right Writing Prize in 2016. thing but the odds seem to be stacked against him. Government pressures cause the funding to his radio Anietie lives in Dubai and is currently completing drama to get cut off, his girlfriend leaves him when a PhD in Media/ Creative Writing at De Montfort she discovers he is having an affair with an intern, University, Leicester. Radio Sunrise is his first novel. and kidnappings and militancy are on the rise in the country. When Ifiok travels to his hometown to do a documentary on some ex-militants’ apparent redemption, a tragi-comic series of events will make him realise he is unable to swim against the tide. 12 New Fiction SWIMMING WITH FISHES RASHEDA ASHANTI MALCOLM ISBN: 978-1-909762-45-9 eISBN: 978-1-909762-46-6 MAY 2017 Romance Binding: B-format paperback Extent: 328 pp Price: £7.99 Rights: World ‘I dream you last night.’ Mother Cynthy’s smile, like her But secrets remain untold between them: Kat eyes, courted mischief. ‘Dream you were swimming with is suffering from a chronic illness and Ben has a fishes. This can mean only one thing…’ secret life back home. Will their love survive those revelations, and will Ben be the man to make Kat’s The Meadows, Jamaica dream come true? Or will their relationship amount to no more than a romantic encounter under the Beautiful young Kat Lewis, artist and daughter of bright Jamaican sun? the community, has always wanted a child. She is overjoyed when Mother Cynthy, the town herbalist, RASHEDA ASHANTI MALCOLM is a writer, a sees Kat swimming with fishes in a dream, a vision playwright and the founder of Candace that can only mean one thing: Kat will soon be a Magazine, aimed at women of colour. Her initiative mother. was rewarded by many prizes, including the Black Business Woman of the Year, the National Black Tall, handsome Thornton “Ben” Benjamin, a Women Achievement Award and, more recently, the successful Londoner in the real estate business, is on Pandora Award for Publishing. a business trip to The Meadows when he spots Kat on the beach. A mysterious energy draws him to her and Rasheda’s first novel was a runner-up in the Saga despite the warning signs in his head, he is unable to Literary Prize. She initiated the Candace Black resist. Throwing caution and better judgement to the Women Achievement Award, and WILDE wind, he pursues her and their initial friendship soon International Network. She currently teaches develops into a passionate romance. Creative Writing in London. New Fiction 15 MURDER IN MONTEGO BAY PAULA LENNON ISBN: 978-1-909762-41-1 eISBN: 978-1-909762-42-8 JUNE 2017 Crime Binding: B-format paperback Extent: 296 pp Price: £8.99 Rights: World ‘A veritable blockbuster of a crime novel!’ Peter Kalu, PAULA LENNON was born in England to Jamaican author of Yard Dogs parents, the sixth child and only girl amongst five boys. She lived in Jamaica during her teens In Montego Bay, Jamaica, privileged Chinese- and attended college in Chapelton, Clarendon. Jamaican brothers Lester and Carter Chin Ellis Back in England, Paula worked for many years as have enjoyed a sheltered life as the heirs to the a commercial lawyer in London, before deciding iced desserts empire Chinchillerz. One fateful to live where the weather was more conducive to night, following a fiery encounter with local law smiling. She currently resides in Jamaica, where she enforcement the brothers are taken to Pelican Walk is always actively plotting, writing, and admiring Police Station, where Lester is detained for drunk the Caribbean Sea. Murder in Montego Bay is her first driving, while Carter is released without charge. novel. Within minutes of leaving the station Carter is shot dead in a drive-by. Discredited Detective Raythan Preddy is put in charge of the murder case and is forced to accept the assistance of Detective Sean Harris, a Scottish lawman seconded to Jamaica. With his superiors watching his every move and the Chin Ellis family interfering with the investigation, Preddy is determined to catch the killer and save his career. 16 New Fiction BEST SELLERS AND AWARD WINNERS 978-1-909762-29-9 £8.99 978-1-909762-31-2 £7.99 JHALAK PRIZE SHORTLIST BETTY TRASK AWARD WINNER AS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 MAN BOOKER SHORTLIST 978-1-909762-43-5 £9.99 Jacaranda 978-1-909762-22-0 £8.99 17 THE BOOK OF HARLAN BERNICE L. MCFADDEN ISBN: 978-1-909762-43-5 eISBN: 978-1-909762-44-2 OCTOBER 2016 Historical fiction Binding: Demy paperback Extent: 400 pp Price: £9.99 Rights: World, excl. North America & the Caribbean ‘. a fascinating exploration of the beauty of the Buchenwald—the notorious concentration camp in Harlem Renaissance, the jazz scene of 1930s Paris and Weimar, Germany—irreparably changing the course the horror of what black people experienced in the Nazi of Harlan’s life. holocaust.’ Samira Ahmed, BBC Radio 4, Front Row Based on exhaustive research and told in ‘This is a story about the triumph of the human spirit McFadden’s mesmeric prose, The Book of Harlan over bigotry, intolerance and cruelty.’ Washington Post skillfully blends the stories of McFadden’s familial ancestors with those of real and imagined The Book of Harlan opens with the courtship of characters.